Head Coach David Fizdale Fired

Take That for Data!

I was as shocked as the entire country was. Coach David Fizdale was let go as the Memphis Grizzlies head coach this past week. The Grizzlies came out of the gate strong beating teams like the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, two of the best teams in the NBA. However, the Grizzlies then fell into a slump losing 8 straight games under Fizdale. The front office did not take kindly to this and chose to fire him. There has been lots of speculation as to why they chose to fire Fizdale so quickly. Many say Marc Gasol played a role as he did not particularly get along with Coach Fizdale, but there is also lots of speculation that it had something to do with Gasol being benched in the 4th quarter of the last game he coached against the Brooklyn Nets.

Now you may be thinking, why on God’s green Earth would the Grizzlies fire the coach that has been leading them to important victories and making the Grizzlies the team that they are now. Every team has their slump, but canning the coach? Something has to be up because this doesn’t sit well with anyone, especially Lebron James.

Fizdale formerly was an assistant coach of Lebron when he was at the Miami Heat. Despite Lebron’s personal relationship with him, I can see where the frustration stems from.

Yes, the Grizzlies were in a slump. Yes, the coaching could use some work, but firing the coach 20 games into an 82 game NBA season? It just doesn’t make sense. When the going gets tough, you usually stick with the coach who was hired (not exaggerating) a year ago. Why get rid of a coach who led the team to the playoffs this past season and even put up a good fight against a very good San Antonio Spurs team. Not only that, last season he led the grizzlies to not one, but two victories against the Golden State Warriors during the regular season, who would go on to win the Championship and were arguably one of the best teams in the NBA.

I still am baffled that the front office made this decision. Who is running stuff down there? Clearly there had to have been some distaste toward Fizdale prior to this. Also, why does a player control the coaching situation? Last time I checked the GM makes the decisions and the front office, not the 7’1” center who cries about being benched one time and gets his coach fired. I feel that this wasn’t fair to Fizdale. He didn’t stand a chance, clearly if they were that quick to fire him. This smells familiar. Lebron is upset over this…….but he got Head Coach David Blatt fired from the Cleveland Cavaliers because he didn’t get along with him……. Seems kind of hypocritical of Lebron but we are not focused on that.

I pray Fizdale finds a new head coaching position in the NBA because no coach deserves to be put out like that. We will see what happens with the Memphis Grizzlies the rest of their season, but it is not looking too optimistic for them currently.